[gorpomon]

This is really cool. I like it. I think a few simple things would be:

-- a toggle to ensure that what you get back is automatically translated to english, and the translation is easier to read. In fact, making sure you can always see translations right away would help, even for suggestions.

-- Much simpler conversations to begin with, my Spanish is basically non-existent from when I took it in school, and the teacher input and the cafe prompt was already too far over my head.

[jjkeddo199]

Getting English translation is a good idea, but it should be "hold down 5 seconds" to reveal -- Allowing it to be shown instantly might actually slow language learning. Users should be allowed to struggle a few seconds first (struggle === learning) before translating.

Alternatively, it might be nice to be able to translate only individual words. If I understood 60% , inferred 35%, and was clueless about 5% of a foreign text, I think I'd end up learning more by using the smallest amount of translation possible and only translating the word I was stuck on.

It would also be nice to see support for more widely spoken languages. Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, and Hindi could be your killer apps -- If supporting non-latin text is a bottleneck, you could launch these languages in beta with some features disabled!

Overall, great product OP! This is definitely good enough to start charging for. Spending 5 minutes a day speaking Spanish is a very appealing idea for me. As silly as it sounds, I'd try selling door to door (in person) for the first few users. I think that could be much more effective for early stages. You should also consider adding a intermediate tier for people in lower income countries.

I will keep your site bookmarked -- I tested it for Spanish, but the language I really want to learn Arabic. If you can add Arabic language support, I will be the first person to sign up!

[fabiensnauwaert]

Hey, thanks! :)

Will add Japanese and Chinese momentarily.

Which variation of Arabic would you want to learn?

You make a good point. I might need to hire a salesperson or do a business deal for this.

[jjkeddo199]

Hello, generally, Arabic is taught with two accents in language schools: Formal "Fus-ha" Arabic, and Egyptian dialect Arabic (most common by far). If you can add both here, I will go ahead and sign up for premium membership. :)

[zapperdulchen]

I would rather invest in a Marketing person. A lot of stuff in the language learning space is sold thru content marketing. There are a lot of influencers. And they are very open to test drive stuff like this.

[fabiensnauwaert]

@gorpomon and @jjkeddo199 Great talking points! I thought about this a lot, but still don't have a good answer: how easy should it be to translate?

- If you make it too easy, like jjkeddo199 pointed out you don't learn. e.g. it's much more useful to watch a movie and understand say 60-70% of it than to have your work cutout for you and understand everything with subtitles.

- But this also depends on the current level you're at… And getting the difficulty just right is what gets people to feel good, learn and be "in the zone" (FLOW)! Such a good feeling!

- It's more beneficial to use THE FEW WORDS ONE KNOWS than to spread oneself too thin, seeing too many words and reading too much translated text. Time spent 100% in the language is super valuable. Story time: when I first lived in Hungary I talked like a 2-year old, but became fluent (in the sense of fast, no need to think) on ultra-limited topics in two months. This created a solid basis I was later able to build on. It's a method that works.

- At times, only translations will make a meaning crystal clear.

But I may also be at a bit of a disconnect. I learn languages by just pushing through, but not everyone has the same learning style (my wife is much more organized and does just as well.)

Sorry if this turned into a ramble…

Anyway… Would love to know what people's experience and feelings are with the whole shebang of translation.